The invention relates to an emergency unlock assembly for unlocking a door lock mechanism or the like in the event of an emergency as when a vehicle is impacted.
Usually, a door of a vehicle is provided with a latch mechanism which latches a door against opening, and a door lock mechanism which inhibits a releasing or unlatching of the latch mechanism. When the door lock mechanism is unlocked, an outside door handle or an inside door handle may be operated to unlatch the latch mechanism to open the door. Conversely, when the door lock mechanism is locked, operation of either outside or inside door handle cannot release the latch mechanism to open the door. Some vehicle is provided with a different form of latch mechanism which can be unlatched by an operation of an inside door handle, independently from the locked/unlocked condition of the door lock mechanism. The purpose of the door lock mechanism of this kind is to prevent a theft or a tampering with the vehicle, by preventing a door from being opened from the outside without a door key as long as the door mechanism is locked. However, this presents a problem that in the event a vehicle encounters a crash to cause a loss of consciousness of an occupant, the rescue of the occupant may be delayed because the door remains locked.
To answer this problem, there is proposed an emergency unlcok assembly which is provided with an impact sensor and a solenoid for unlocking the door lock mechanism and which is thus able to unlock the door lock mechanism by the energization of the solenoid upon detection of an impact.
One of disadvantages of the emergency unlock assembly of the kind described resides in the fact that it operates irrespective of the presence or absence of an occupant. By way of example, the emergency unlock assembly may be actuated by applying an impact to an unmanned vehicle during its parking, thus unlocking the door lock mechanism for purpose of theft of the vehicle itself or articles placed therein or tampering therewith.
It is an object to prevent an improper use of an emergency unlock assembly on a vehicle.